Before the Big Bang There was Another Universe and a New one Will Emerge After Ours Collapses

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The
universe started with the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, but what was there
before? Does this question even make sense? And can we really address this
question scientifically? This is exactly what a team of scientists has tried to
do. In their new model of cosmology, the universe we see is just one in a cycle
of many universes. Each of these universes has its own phases of expansion,
contraction and a Big Bang.

In
their study, published on the pre-print server arxiv.org, Maha Salah, Fayçal
Hammad, Mir Faizal and Ahmed Farag Ali have been able to look at the state of
the universe before its beginning, creating a model of pre-Big Bang cosmology.

The
cosmology of the universe can be modelled using the Einstein's general theory
of relativity. It predicts that the universe is expanding and the galaxies are
all moving away from us. Also the further a galaxy is away, the faster it is
moving away from us. This is used to predict the universe started with a Big
Bang – if you reverse this expansion to go back in time, eventually we come to
the point where the universe began.

At
the point of Big Bang the laws of Einstein's general theory of relativity seem
to break down and it is not possible to use them to understand how the Big Bang
occurred. So, how did the Big Bang happen and can we describe physics before
the Big Bang? Can we describe physics before the creation of the universe?
According to the team's model, yes, we can.

They
first used Jacobson's formalism of Einstein's general theory of relativity,
where the Einstein equation is basically described as thermodynamical equation.
They then studied the corrections to the Einstein equations from quantum
effects.

There
is no quantum theory of gravity, but there are many approaches to quantum
gravity. All of these approaches seem to imply the structure of spacetime
breaks down at a small length scale, so there is no spacetime below that scale.
Many of these approaches also seem to indicate that there is a maximum energy
in the universe, and you cannot really have an energy beyond that maximum
energy.

Faizal
told IBTimes UK: "Our spacetime is only an approximation to some purely
mathematical theory describing reality, and the geometry of spacetime emerges
from this theory. Just as the geometry of any solid material objects emerges
from atomic theory. It is meaningless to talk about the geometry of a solid
object at atomic scale and it is also meaningless to talk about the geometry of
solid object at such energies when they will melt.

"In
the same way, it becomes meaningless to talk of the geometry of spacetime below
a certain length scale and beyond a certain energy scale. However, the fact
that the geometry of spacetime is bounded by a minimum length and a maximum
energy can be used to study quantum gravitational effects on cosmology, and
doing this we have been able to study the pre-Big Bang cosmology".

The
team took these two inputs – that spacetime breaks down at a minimum length and
that it is not possible for any object in this spacetime to have an energy
beyond a certain maximum energy – and applied it to the thermodynamical
description of general theory of relativity. What they ended up with was four
distinct phases of the universe, supporting the idea of a cyclical universe.

"The
equations imply that the expansion of the universe will come to a halt and then
will immediately be followed by a contracting phase. When the equations are
extrapolated beyond the maximum rate of contraction, a cyclic universe scenario
emerges," they wrote.

"The
Big Bang is not really the beginning of the universe, it is just a phase
transition," Faizal said. "There was a phase before the Big Bang,
there is the present phase, there will be a phase after this and then will yet
another fourth phase. Then a new Big Bang will occur. So, the universe exists
in four different phases, just a water exists in three different phases."

Initially,
the team had thought they would be able to get the get the maximum density for
the universe and get rid of the singularity. The result of a cyclical universe
was a surprise. "That was amazing that we actually got our cyclic
universe. And not only cyclic but with four distinct phases. We did not impose
it. It just came out as a conclusion," Faizal explained.

The
researchers say it will be a challenge to test their model.

Asked
if it could be used to predict when the universe will fall in on itself, Faizal
added: "I think it will be impossible to predict when the universe will
collapse. But what we can predict is that it will collapse. So the right
question is not when, it is will it. And will it? Yes."